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Turkey
From left: file photos of Mala Ali Kurdistani and people gathering in front of his Istanbul office. Credit: Kurdistani and DHA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Security forces in Istanbul province’s Basaksehir district raided the office of a controversial Kurdish mullah from the Kurdistan Region on Tuesday, Turkish media has reported.
Mullah Ali Kalak, mostly known as Mala Ali Kurdistani, has claimed to be able to heal the sick, possessed and disabled with Quranic verses as well as other means like camel’s urine. He had run an office in the Kurdistan Region for years but it was eventually closed down by authorities for his unconventional practices and lack of license.
Kurdistani had recently opened an office in Basaksehir district, attracting scores of people who would wait in long queues to meet him.
Following several complaints, Turkish police raided the office on Tuesday, arresting three people, DHA reported. Kurdistani himself was not found in the office.
Health authorities have said that Kurdistani did not have a license.
Mustafa Kaplan, who had visited Kurdistani with the hope that his son could recover from autism, told DHA that the Kurdish mullah had beaten his child’s feet with a stick and the family was told they had to visit him once in two months.
After the closure of his office in the Kurdistan Region in 2020, Kurdistani said that he would leave the Region and resume his work in another country. He moved to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia but was arrested in Saudi in February 2020 for staging the divine healing of a blind man. He was later released.
Kurdistani has also appeared in Bangladesh and other Muslim countries. He courted controversy in 2017 by claiming that US former President Donald Trump is possessed, and that he could heal Trump by beating the soles of his feet.
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